‘They Just Enacted My Lines’: Rapper on Maharashtra Govt’s ‘Highhanded’ Action Against Him

Mumbai: Ten days after rap artist Raj Mungase went into hiding fearing police action, he is now back home in Aurangabad. A local magistrate court granted him interim relief from arrest on April 12 in a defamation case filed against him for his political rap song ‘Chor’, criticising the current Maharashtra state government. His bail application will be heard on April 25.

Mungase, a master’s student at a college in Aurangabad, said the way he was chased over the past 10 days and the state government and its machinery’s response is in sync with the song he wrote. “My song spoke of the highhandedness and the lack of accountability of this government. They just enacted my lines,” Mungase said in a telephonic interview with The Wire.

Mungase, who started writing songs only a few years ago, has put out two rap songs on YouTube so far. The first rap song ‘Jai Bhimkara’ is dedicated to Dr B.R. Ambedkar and his revolutionary work towards the annihilation of caste. The second one counters the present Eknath Shinde-led state government. “The present government came into power after backstabbing the Mahavikas Aghadi government. For over a week, the drama of Maharashtra MLAs going missing dominated the news space. They were seen running from one state to another; they were almost held hostage in different hotels of Gauhati, Gujarat and Goa. It was a mockery of democracy,” he said. “My song simply talked about that,” he adds.

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While the song doesn’t name any political party or individual, it is obvious that it is about Shinde and other Shiv Sena MLAs who broke away from the then Mahavikas Aghadi government and aligned with the BJP. The MLAs were accused of taking hefty bribes to jump camps and bring down the Uddhav Thackeray government. Shinde became the chief minister after this political coup. Mungase’s song opens with the lyrics “Chor aale 50 khokhe gheun kiti bagha, chor aale…ekdum okay houn”, which loosely translates to, “Look, the thieves have come with Rs 50 crore. Look, the thieves look all fine.”

The minute-and-a-half long rap song was published on YouTube on March 26. “Initially only some 600 people had viewed the song. I was happy with the response. But then MLA Jitendra Awhad posted the link of the rap song on his social media space and in no time, the rap song went viral,” he said. The lyrics, Mungase said, hurt Shinde’s supporters and his party member Snehal Kamble filed a case against him.

Mungase recalls how the Aurangabad police had come looking for him at his residence. “I was confused. The police suddenly came to my place on April 3. I was not home and they asked my brother to get me to the police station immediately to surrender. Singing a vidrohi (rebellious) song is not a crime. I refused to give in,” he said. In his absence, he alleged that the police harassed his younger brother and family members.

Mungase’s father works at a local poultry farm; his mother is a daily-wage farm labourer. Around seven years ago, his landless family had to migrate from Jalna district to Aurangabad in search of work. “The migration story of my family is actually a template case. Even with education most youth are jobless today. We end up doing odd jobs just to survive,” he said.

The police action and the sudden media and political attention has not deterred Mungase. “I am sitting ready with my next two raps: Ache Din and Degree,” he said.

Just like Mungase, another rap artist from Mumbai, Umesh Khade, is facing criminal charges for his political rap song questioning the current dispensation for failing its citizens. Two days after the FIR against Mungase, another FIR was registered against Khade by the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai police for uploading his song ‘Janta bhongali keli (You stripped the public naked)’. ‘Bhongali’ is a common rural slang word used to denote nakedness. Khade has not been arrested but his family has accused the police of harassment.